A Guide for Campus Dialogue

On Marriage, Family, and Sexual Integrity

The following series of pages includes frequently asked questions pertaining to sexuality, the family, and marriage. We hope you will find them helpful as you reflect on your own commitments, discern your approach to campus activism, or even if you’re simply wondering what the Love and Fidelity Network stands for.

What does it mean to have sexual integrity?

Sexual integrity means living out one’s sexuality in a way consistent with the conjugal purpose and meaning of sex. This means the same thing for married and single people, albeit lived out in different ways – both are called to reserve sex for marriage and to be faithful in mind and body to one’s spouse.

Sexual integrity also refers to the attitudes and habits that make abstinence from extra-marital sex possible and that help reinforce marital fidelity. Read more.

What is marriage?

Marriage is the lifelong, exclusive union of one man and one woman. It is based on the reality that a man and a woman are necessary for reproduction and that children need a father and a mother. Marriage brings together a man and a woman to be committed to each other as husband and wife and together committed to their children as father and mother. Read more.

What do stable, intact families contribute to society?

Because stable, intact families are rooted in stable marriages, they benefit children and society in the same ways that intact marriages do. First, married men and women tend to be happier, healthier and wealthier than their single peers. As for their children, growing up in an intact family is strongly associated with better emotional health and higher levels of education, work, and income among young men and women. Adolescents from intact families are also more likely to delay becoming sexually active, which also means lower levels of teen pregnancy. Stability at home also tends to be associated with less risky behavior overall. Even something as simple as frequently having dinner with one’s family is associated with lower risk for substance abuse among teens. Finally, intact families rooted in stable marriages tend to lead to future stable marriages among the grown children of those unions. In other words, marriage reinforces marriages among the next generation. Individuals thrive when they have the security of a stable, intact family life. And when individuals and their families thrive, society thrives. Read more.

What is hookup culture?

A hookup refers to any sexual encounter (from kissing to sex) that is meant to be casual and occurs outside of a relationship with no intention of commitment. “Hookup culture” refers to the set of attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that accept and promote casual sexual interactions (hookups). Read more.

What does sex education on campus look like?

Collegiate sex education sets the bar very low for human respect and sexual integrity. It teaches that anything goes in sex and relationships so long as there is consent. The programs that communicate this message often use crude humor and explicit language and essentially instruct students in the how-tos of promiscuous and risky sexual behaviors. Read more.

What’s the big deal about pornography?

Pornography offends human dignity, perverts sex, and kills love. Pornography hurts the person viewed, the viewer, and often also the family of the viewer. There is nothing healthy, helpful, or good about pornography.

Pornography is “prostitution with a camera” and often involves trafficking, rape, or other forms of violence and abuse. In this way it hurts those who are used to create the pornography. Read more.